Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Maher to out gay Republicans; and CNN censorship

host · 11-19-2006, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FoolThemAll

Gave up on the thread jack, host?

Background:
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A1100-2001May8">American Psychiatric Association: "Since 1973, when the association reversed its position that homosexuality was a mental disorder, all major medical groups have advised against attempts to persuade gay men and lesbians to seek treatment, noting that such attempts can be psychologically damaging. But some religious groups have waged a campaign over the past three years to convert gays to heterosexuality through counseling."</a>

The two sides to the argument on this thread are illustrated in the following examples:

One party's political platform seeks to exclude homosexuals from marriage and military service, and the other party's platform "support[s] the full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of the nation."

A congresswomen of one party openly states that she was "The first openly gay person to be elected to Congress as a nonincumbent, Tammy Baldwin is a forceful supporter of civil rights and an advocate for those in our society whose voices, too often, are not heard."

The party chairman, the V-POTUS and a congressman and his COS, all members of the other party, have worked for and voted for legislation that intentionally exludes homosexuals and/or denies rights to them that are enjoyed by the "rest of us", even as these officials themselves, deny, mislead, cover up, or refuse to answer whether or not they, themselves, or an immediate family member, are homosexual. In the case of the VPOTUS, he attempted to use the sexual orientation of his daughter, to attract the "homosexual vote", even as he, himself, relegated his daughter and her personal relationship with another woman, to a lesser status than that of his married daughter, and while his own background included votes against homosexual interests when he was a congressman, and while he supported his party's current, anti-homosexual rights platform provisions.

IMO, to argue in favor of supporting the status of closeted anti-gay, gay republican elected and party officials, is to advocate for the continued hypocrisy and dysfunction of self-loathing folks who are overwhelmed by their own amibition, and who lack a sense of an obligation to be open about who they are, with the folks who they serve. To support the closeted hypocrisy of Mehlman, Cheney, Dreier, and Brad Smith, I would assume that one would also support the spectacle of a closeted gay presidential candidate who, when asked about his family situation, simply replied, as Mehlman and Dreier have, that such an inquiry is inappropriate or irrelevant. Aren't "we, the people" entitled to know the living arrangements and the family circumstances of all who represent us or run major political parties, especially of parties that "embrace family values", and pledge to exclude homosexuals, just as we would expect to know those details, of our president or someone running for that office?

Quote:

http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Dem...vil_Rights.htm

Keep marriage at state level; no federal gay marriage ban
We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been defined at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a "Federal Marriage Amendment." Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart.
Source: The Democratic Platform for America, p.36 Jul 10, 2004

We support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, to end workplace discrimination against gay men and lesbians. We support the full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of the nation. We will fight for full funding of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and other civil rights enforcement agencies.
Source: Democratic National Platform Aug 15, 2000

Quote:

http://www.wiscnews.com/pdr/archives.../04/106030.php

CANDIDATE PROFILE: Tammy Baldwin - Democrat

By the Daily Register Staff

Running for: U.S. House of Representatives, 2nd District

Age: 44

Residence: Madison

Current Occupation: 2nd District Representative, U.S. House of Representatives

Education: Madison West High School, B.A. Smith College, Northampton, Mass., J.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison

Former Political Experience: Dane County Board of Supervisors, Madison City Council, Wisconsin State Assembly, and the U.S. House of Representatives

Family: Lives with partner Lauren Azar in Madison

Quote:

http://www.tammybaldwin.com/Biograph...3/Default.aspx
In November 1998, Tammy Baldwin was elected to Congress to represent Wisconsin's 2nd Congressional District, becoming the first woman from Wisconsin to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. She was re-elected in 2000, 2002 and 2004......

........The first openly gay person to be elected to Congress as a nonincumbent, Tammy Baldwin is a forceful supporter of civil rights and an advocate for those in our society whose voices, too often, are not heard.

Quote:

http://www.ontheissues.org/2004_GOP_Platform.htm

Civil Rights

States should not recognize gay marriage from other states.
Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Homosexuality is incompatible with military service.

Quote:

http://www.gaypeopleschronicle.com/s...ch/0325054.htm

March 25, 2005

GOP national chair avoids question about his sexuality

by Eric Resnick

Akron--“[You] have asked a question people shouldn’t have to answer,” said Republican National Committee chair Ken Mehlman to a reporter asking if he is gay.
Mehlman was interviewed after he spoke to the Summit County Republican Party’s annual Lincoln Day dinner March 19 at Quaker Station.

“I’m here to say thank you,” Mehlman told the gathering, “because Summit County increased its votes for George W. Bush from 2000 to 2004 more than any other county.”

Mehlman managed the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign and, according to the campaign’s Ohio co-chair, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, directed Ohio anti-gay activists to mount the campaign to put the Issue 1 marriage ban amendment on the ballot.

Internet bloggers have pointed out that if Mehlman, 38, unmarried and never with female companionship, is gay, he is a hypocrite.

Activist and blogger John Arovosis says Mehlman should be outed if he is gay because “Mehlman has already said publicly that the gay issue is fair game for politics. If it is fair game, then the same rules apply to him.”....

Quote:

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/...7/31/mary.html

Why Nothing About Mary?
cover image John Cloud

August 1, 2000
Web posted at: 9:05 p.m. EDT (0105 GMT)

Richard and Lynne Cheney have two daughters. And last week Bush-Cheney campaign spokespeople were happy to inform reporters that daughter Elizabeth, 34, is married and has three children. When reporters asked about Mary Cheney's personal life, however, they were told the campaign wouldn't discuss it.

Last week Mary Cheney, 31, stayed in Wyoming after her dad's debut rally. She was away from the suburban Denver home she shares with her girlfriend Heather and away from the constantly ringing phone. She was torn over how to handle press inquiries about her homosexuality. "I love my father," she told an acquaintance. "I don't want to be a distraction."

While friends say her relationship with her father is obviously strong, her relationship to his campaign is more muddled. Bush officials said the Governor invited her on the campaign trail, and Lynne Cheney told TIME both her daughters would accept. But Mary Cheney got the feeling that the campaign wanted to say as little about her as possible, according to a friend.

"She's encouraging people to call the campaign, because that will force them to come up with some answers," said Mike Smith, a Denver gay activist who has known Cheney for three years. But coming up with those answers would be interpreted as putting Mary's relationship on an equal footing with her sister's. That would be a major departure for a party that has traditionally supported the right of employers to fire gay people.

Mary Cheney isn't a gay activist. But until May, she worked for Coors Brewing Co. as liaison to the gay community, and she gave buckets of the brewer's money to gay causes. ("She was one of our secret weapons in terms of donations," an activist said.) She traveled the country defending the company at meetings of gay radicals who oppose the G.O.P. politics of the Coors family. "Coors has come a long way," she told a gay paper in 1998. "It's a company that really listened to us."

But have her parents? Will Bush? For months, the Governor waffled on whether he would hire someone like Mary--an openly gay person--in his administration before saying sexuality wasn't a factor for him. As a Congressman in the '80s, her dad routinely voted for antigay bills. But he has never smeared gays in personal terms, and contrary to her reputation as a culture warrior, Lynne Cheney hasn't either. When Mary came out to her in the early '90s, Lynne quietly asked gay Republican friends for advice.

The Cheneys made clear last week that they love their daughter. And Mary Cheney seemed eager to get back to the Colorado outdoors (she loves to golf) and start business school. For now, she's keeping quiet about Dad's politics. "It must be very tough for her to feel that second-class status implied by his positions," says Dee Mosbacher, the lesbian daughter of Robert Mosbacher, Commerce Secretary under Bush's father. "I've come a long way with my own father, but it takes a lot of discussion."

Quote:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP.../31/ip.00.html
GOP Convention Opens With Optimism About Party's Prospects
Aired July 31, 2000 - 5:00 p.m. ET

Even Lynne Cheney seemed reluctant to comment on her daughter's sexual orientation.

LYNNE CHENEY, DICK CHENEY'S WIFE: Mary has never declared such a thing.

I would like to say that I'm appalled at the media interest in one of my daughters. BIRCH: I think so far, you've seen the Bush campaign, and to some extent, her parents, hide behind these notions of privacy......

Quote:

http://www.larryflynt.com/notebook.php?id=88
Congressman David Dreier: Gay & Ashamed

.....Apparently the evangelical group failed to notice that Dreier’s roommate and constant companion is none other than Brad W. Smith, his appropriately entitled chief of staff.

Smith must be worth his weight in gold, as Dreier is paying his major domo the highest salary he legally can: $156,600 a year. That’s just $400 less than White House heavyweights Karl Rove and Andy Card.

This rankles John Byrne, editor of RawStory.com, who recently began to investigate Dreier’s secret life after learning that gay activist Michael Rogers was already hammering the issue of the congressman’s sexuality on BlogActive.com. “Brad Smith is paid both from the Rules Committee and from Dreier’s office, which is not unheard of,” Byrne points out. “It’s allowed, but the [staff for] Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Appropriations Committee—those people are only paid from the congressmen’s office.”

Brad Smith currently collects $106,000 from the Rules Committee on top of his $50,600 office earnings. “His salary from Dreier’s office went down when he joined the Rules Committee,” Byrne continues, but remained locked in at $156,600. “There’s a rule that says that if you’re going to pay people from the committee, it shouldn’t be as an expense of your own office—like you shouldn’t be using committee funds to pay for someone who you’re paying for basically anyway.”
Dreier and Smith have shown a taste for jet-setting together as well. During the past three years they have traveled to at least 25 countries together on the taxpayers’ dime, spending 45 days abroad in locales that traditionally attract frolicking lovers: Italy and Spain, as well as a few destinations off the beaten path, including Sri Lanka, Micronesia and Iceland.

“It’s common knowledge up on the Hill that David Dreier is just a big, huge fag,” said Randy Economy, campaign manager for Dr. Janice Nelson-Hayes, the congressman’s Democratic opponent in 1998 and 2000. Economy (who is openly gay) indicated that, despite compelling evidence of Dreier’s carefully guarded sexual orientation, candidate Nelson-Hayes passed on making it an issue in her last campaign.

“There were issues out there and evidence that this living situation occurred and the payment that he was making to his chief of staff,” Nelson-Hayes declared. “We just decided that we weren’t going to go into that because we didn’t know how many other members of Congress had loved ones, family members, spouses, significant others working in their offices.”

A longtime Democratic adviser with numerous campaigns under his belt, Economy said Dreier’s gay life is valid for discussion, since public policy that affects millions of people is at stake. “I know the pain that people go through in this process here,” Economy said. “But [Dreier] has got to deal with this stuff because now he is [advocating] positions against the community and against himself, and it’s not right. His lover is benefiting from it; therefore he’s benefiting from it, and that’s just not fair and possibly not legal.”......

.....Now 52, David Timothy Dreier himself has remained hunkered down, floating vague nondenial denials through unnamed surrogates on various Web sites. Attending the Republican National Convention in New York City, Dreier was confronted on satellite radio and asked if he was heterosexual. Apparently flustered, the legislator said he wasn’t there to “talk about that.”

Dreier never has been “there” to talk about it, even as homosexuals have been fired, smeared and even murdered for simply being gay.
And that’s the shame of it all.

SCREWIN’ ’EM: DAVID DREIER’S IN-CLOSET VOTING RECORD

2004: Voted for the Marriage Protection Act. 2001: Supported legislation allowing federally funded charities to discriminate against gays and lesbians, despite local laws. 1999: Opposed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (as he had in 1996 and ’97). 1998: Voted to prohibit gays and lesbians in the District of Columbia from adopting children (D.C. is 3,000 miles from Dreier’s own district); opposed restoration of funding to the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program. 1997: Opposed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act; opposed increases in state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. 1996: Voted for the Defense of Marriage Act; opposed the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS program.

Quote:

http://www.nypress.com/17/37/news&columns/signorile.cfm
OUT IN THE GARDEN
Republicans run for cover when the gay journo approaches.

By Michelangelo Signorile

.....Then there was California Congressman David Dreier, who was on Arnold Schwarzenegger's transition team and who came to the convention to pump up his boy Arnie. Dreier, in his 50s and unmarried, sat down with me for an interview and proceeded to give a rim job to the Gropenator until I steered the conversation over to Dreier's support of the Marriage Protection Act. It's a heinous piece of legislation that the House passed which would prevent people from challenging the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act in federal court, a law legal experts said would be unconstitutional. Dreier, starting to sweat just a little bit, pointed out that he is against the Federal Marriage Amendment, even as he tried to explain why he voted for another piece of antigay legislation. When I asked Dreier, who is in the middle of his own re-election campaign, about his sexual orientation and the long-held rumors about him, he twice refused to clarify whether he was heterosexual or not......